Comptroller Cracks Down On Rent Cheating Yankees

Comptroller and mayoral candidate Bill Thompson is out to get the Yankees for $3.7 million dollars in rent that his office says the team cheated the city on. The Bronx bombers have plenty of money, especially with consistently ranking #1 as the team with the highest salary in the Majors. Yet over the last eight years, they've been skimming a little too much off the top.

From NY1:

The Yankees owe the city more than $65,000 in rent payments for the first quarter of last year, according to an audit released Monday by the city comptroller's office. Comptroller Bill Thompson says the team has consistently overstated their rent deductions by more than $3.7 million since 2000.

He says the Yankees have a pattern of not paying the city what is owed until it has been audited.

The Yankees are not disputing the audit and plan to pay. Yankees President Randy Levine says that the audit was a routine part of the team's compliance with a complicated lease.

While I applaud the recovery of $3.7 million, it is still only pennies on the dollar from what the team should not be taking from the city in the form of tax free bonds and other means to have New Yorkers pay for the construction of the new Yankee Stadium. It was nice to see city officials give back the stadium suite, but those hundreds of millions of dollars should be given back to the city, heavens knows Steinbrenner could have financed that stadium if he had to.

Thompson Wants To Save Straphangers With Vehicle Tax

City Comptroller and candidate (not official yet of course) for Mayor Bill Thompson added a new idea to the mix on how to save the troubled M.T.A. from its hard times. Instead of cutting services and jobs, he wants to throw the burden onto those that drive into and around the city. Unlike the current Mayor though, he isn't even mentioning the words "congestion pricing" in his plan.

From The NY Daily News:

Thompson's plan would stick all metro-area car owners with supersized-vehicle use taxes based on the weight of their car.

The sliding-scale tax would be in addition to the sliding-scale, weight-based state registration fee they already pay every two years. That means about $200 extra for cars and $400 or more for heavyweights like SUVs.

"We need to assure that all those who benefit from a healthy transit system will pay their fair share," said Thompson, noting that transit ridership reduces congestion.

Thompson's proposed tax would affect all 12 counties of the so-called Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District served by the MTA - and raise as much as $1.8 billion annually, he said Sunday.

Well first off this is much better than cutting service and hiking the fair by fifty cents or a dollar. The only question is will all of that money go directly towards running the M.T.A.? While the DN only interviews two drivers that sound supportive, many other car owners will not be as thrilled. At least for Thompson he only has to deal with voters in five of those counties and most of the upset New Yorkers will be in the outer boroughs. With that said, if certain guarantees could be made for that money, then eventually more people will be accepting of the raised fees.

For far too long we've put more money into the transit authority without seeing much improvement. Their current proposal makes us pay more to get less, so Thompson at least shifts the burden from those that use mass transit. For the money though, the M.T.A. has to get serious about their finances and run their operation with much less fat. They can toss the public relations team for starters. I do not want to hear how good they're doing with little messages about the 2nd Avenue line and how fares in 1986 weren't that much different than now. Save that space for advertisers. Don't tell us about good things, show us damnit!

Yankees Cheated NYC Out Of $11 Million

Eleven million dollars isn't really that much when you consider the billion dollar plus public financing of the new Yankee Stadium. Still, it was discovered that they improperly deducted expenses from their rent and are finally paying it back. I know most New Yorkers love the team, but the management of the ballclub is absolutely despicable.

From NY1:

The city comptroller's office said today that the Yankees improperly deducted more than $11 million from its annual rent bill for Yankee Stadium between 2003 and 2006.

An audit by Comptroller Bill Thompson finds the Bronx Bombers overstated expenses by more than $24 million, allowing the team to underpay its rent.

Thompson also says the Yanks deducted nearly $10 million in 2006 for planning costs for the new stadium, after claiming those deductions in previous years.

The comptroller says the team has agreed to pay it all back with interest.

How sad that even with all the perks they get from the city, the front office feels that they can abuse the taxpayers that come to watch their games (for ridiculous ticket prices too). It is nice that they are paying it back with interest, but only because Thompson's office audited them. It isn't like the fessed' up to it or anything. Now I'm waiting for Bloomberg to address the issue and punish Steinbrenner's crew, but I won't hold my breath.

Council Speaker's Phantom Groups Go Beyond Quinn's Office

It is now a little more than a day since the story broke about the phantom groups in the City Council Speaker's budget that went to "other" causes (such as those people that do what the Speaker's office wants them to). Quinn claims to have only found out recently and that the people in her office who utilized the slush fund were fired months ago. Somehow though there is no paper trail of her documenting them being fired for these acts, so we have no idea why they left. Nevertheless, some blame lies on Speaker/Mayoral candidate Christine Quinn for not inspecting her budget more thoroughly. Then again, there is blame to spread on to another candidate for Mayor, Comptroller William Thompson.

From The NY Sun:

Mr. Thompson, who is running for mayor, said in a statement that the allegations against budget practices of the council raise serious concerns.

"If there were any attempts to subvert the New York City Charter or to hide money in non-existent organizations, these actions would represent a breach of the public trust," he said. His spokesman could not be reached for comment about the damage the disclosure may have on Mr. Thompson's political future.

A former parks commissioner who is the director of New York Civic, Henry Stern, said the budget accounting practice implicates officials outside the council as well as in, and is "totally wrong." "He's in his seventh year as comptroller. She's only in her third year as speaker," he said, referring to Mr. Thompson and Ms. Quinn. "All these books are in print, how come the comptroller didn't know anything about it? It's their job to audit all these city agencies. I think although it's primarily the speaker's fault, we should look closely at what the comptroller knew and when he knew it."

Stern makes a very good point. Why didn't Thompson catch this? For that matter, what about the Comptrollers before him and the same goes for all of the Speakers from Peter Vallone to Christine Quinn. This lack of accountability goes across the city's political spectrum and this is just one instance of corruption. Now two candidates for Mayor are being fingered in this story, and their credibility, even this far out is going to be tarnished. Criminal charges should be coming soon, but we'll see if the law or the public will have the greatest effect on their political and legal futures.

Same-Sex Marriage...It's Good For The Economy

If you aren't convinced that same-sex marriage should be legalized for the obvious reasons (equality, liberty for all, compassion for people no matter what their differences, etc) the City Comptroller has another one for you. It's the money. NYC Comptroller William Thompson argued today in support of legalizing same-sex marriages because it is good for the economy. Just how good is it Mr Thompson?

From WNYC:

NEW YORK, NY June 05, 2007 —Weddings are a multi billion dollar industry - millions of which are spent here in New York. City Comptroller William Thompson used that argument today to say same-sex marriage would be good for the state economy and to urge state legislators to act on a languishing bill.

REPORTER: Thompson estimates that in the first three years of allowing gay marriage the city would attract an additional $142 million in wedding spending.

THOMPSON: The economic benefits would be derived primarily from wedding related spending by residents and visitors along with spending by their out of town visitors and guests.

So forget about the moral imperative to achieve equality for all Americans. If you don't care about people's moral right to try and be happy with someone they love then focus on the money. Crain's New York Business has more statistics about the matter. New York's economy is already booming largely due to soaring real estate prices, so why not tack on a few million that helps expand the marriage business?